GREECE
- Some 3000 refugees live in the Moria camp, out of some 14000 stuck on
the Aegean islands since the closing of borders. Photo @lgouliam: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 17 March 2017

A Palestinian man takes a selfie next to a blast crater reportedly
caused by an Israeli air strike, east of #Gaza By @mohmdabed @AFP: image
via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 17 March 2017

President Trump and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in the Oval Office on Friday: photo by The New York Times, 17 March 2017

President Trump and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in the Oval Office on Friday: photo by The New York Times, 17 March 2017

Angela Merkel on her
relationship with Donald Trump: ‘People are different. People have
different abilities, different origins … That is diversity. That is
good.’: photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters, 17 March 2017

They
say opposites attract … but nobody told Trump and Merkel: The German
chancellor and US president represent contrasting poles of
the western alliance, and every moment of their awkward encounter
shouted it: Julian Borger in Washington, The Guardian, 17 March 2017

The
cameras clicked and the photographers asked Angela Merkel and Donald
Trump to shake hands. "Do you want to have a handshake?" she asked.

Trump looked straight ahead with a presidential grimace frozen on his
face but gave no response. If he had heard her, he did not show it.

The
most powerful leader in Europe was offering an opening to start mending
bilateral ties that have frayed badly since Trump's stunning rise. But
the president was preoccupied with looking resolute for the cameras, and
behind them, his supporters.

The
moment passed and its embarrassment washed over the chancellor’s face.
This was a man who, after all, held hands with Theresa May – the
messenger of Brexit. Merkel, the embodiment of European unity, could not
even get a perfunctory shake.

That eventually came, at the joint press conference, but the personal chemistry did not improve..
On the podium, Trump talked past Merkel, launching into a version of
his campaign speech about the need to rebuild the American industrial
base in the wake of a string of bad trade deals.

The president said he supported Nato, but then segued into a claim
that the US had been ripped off by its allies, who he alleged owed “vast
sums of money”.

“This is very unfair to the US,” he said. “These
nations must pay what they owe.”

The performance suggested the new proprietor of a firm who had
discovered its books had been cooked by the previous owner and his shady
business partners, one of whom he was now parading in front of the
angry shareholders.

Trump’s
one moment of attempted levity was a pointed joke about how being
wiretapped by Barack Obama was what the two leaders had in common.
It allowed him to restate his claim to have been bugged, and shrug off
questions on whether the White House should apologise to Britain for
suggesting it was carrying out the surveillance on Obama’s behalf.

And the quip served as a reminder to Merkel that, however much she
might miss Obama in that moment, things had not always been easy between
them, particularly after it was revealed in 2013 that the NSA had hacked her mobile phone.

Trump smiled broadly; Merkel did not. She remained stony-faced to that and his jibes about trade and defence.

She voiced appreciation for the “gracious hospitality”, though by
this point it seemed likely she was being ironic. She noted it was
better to “talk to each other rather than about one another” – a
reference to Trump’s trolling of her leadership during his campaign,
particularly on immigration. “What she’s done in Germany is insane,” he declared in an interview in October 2015.

Without
directly challenging Trump, the chancellor went through
almost all his talking points and knocked them down. She argued that
trade deals tend to benefit both parties, and noting that Germany had
pledged to raise its defence spending to 2% of GDP by 2024.

This was a gently worded riposte to Trump’s claims that US allies
owed huge sums to Nato, pointing out that the issue is not unpaid dues
but a promise by European allies to spend more on defence over the next
few years.

This was never going to be easy. The president and the chancellor now represent opposite poles in the western camp.

Merkel built her leadership on the postwar concrete of the liberal order – free markets, the European Union and Nato.

Trump is dismissive of all those institutions, belittling them by
Twitter, and offering lip service in their support only when pressed.
His chief strategist, the White House ideologue Steve Bannon, has
explicitly called for the dismantling of the old liberal order and given
support to the European far right.

Merkel never tries to pretend when she is not enjoying herself. She
parried a question from a German reporter about what she made of Trump’s
personal style by pointing out that it is a leader’s job to talk to
other leaders who are not like them.

“People are different. People have different abilities, different
origins … That is diversity. That is good,” she explained, sounding like
a teacher telling her pupils they were being joined by a new classmate
with special needs.

And she added: “If things went without problems, we wouldn’t need politicians.”

In other words: it is because I have to deal with people like this that you pay me the big bucks.

Iraqi troops fire a missile at Islamic State militants in Mosul: photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters, 12 March 2017

Iraqi troops fire a missile at Islamic State militants in Mosul: photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters, 12 March 2017

In which the Spy Museum in DC trolls Time's Person of the Year in their display on phone wiretapping...Olivier Knox Retweeted Olivier KnoxOlivier Knox added,Bonusimage via Olivier Knox @OKnox, 17 March 2017

Merkel asks Trump: “Do you want to have a handshake?”
The U.S. president did not respond.
Andrew Beatty Retweeted POLITICOAndrew Beatty added,It was quite loud inside the room. He didn't appear to hear her.

image via Andrew Beatty @AndrewBeatty, 17 March 2017

@realDonaldTrump
holds a meeting with German Chancellor Merkel and business leaders.
Merkel is seated next to Ivanka: image via Jeff Mason
@Jeff Mason1, 17 March 2017

@realDonaldTrump praises @BMW plant during meeting with German and US business leaders: image via Jeff Mason
@Jeff Mason1, 17 March 2017

@IvankaTrump
during meeting with German Chancellor Merkel and business leaders with
@realDonaldTrump at White House: image via Jeff Mason
@Jeff Mason1, 17 March 2017 @IvankaTrump says in meeting with
@realDonaldTrump and Germany's Merkel that she applauds her father's
commitment to creating jobs: tweet via Jeff Mason
@Jeff Mason1, 17 March 2017